A variety of mechanical and electrical circuit breaking systems are known to the art. Many, if not all of these, are effective in most applications, i.e., low voltage and current or circuit equipment which is relatively insensitive to electrical power disturbances. However, many systems, particularly high speed computers, are not so tolerant to circuit disruption or voltage transients and require high speed isolation of circuit faults. A number of these systems involve high voltages and/or currents, e.g., power loads on the order of 25 kw and higher.
Most electrical breakers are relatively effective at low load. However, in higher load applications these electrical breakers become very critical elements and must be sized for higher power levels at considerable expense. Most mechanical breaking systems are obviously inapposite in such applications, due to the time required for their operation and their consequent inability to rapidly isolate faults.
Numerous explosive devices are also known. These often have the advantage the they are faster operating than strictly mechanical apparatus and are much less expensive than are purely electrical breakers in high load applications. Devices illustrative of this type are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,110,855, Chumakov, and 2,892,062, Bruckner et al, incorporated herein be reference. These publications also elaborate, to some extent, on the nature of problems involved in certain circuit isolating devices.
Those devices, and other apparatus of similar design, also suffer from several disadvantages. Notable of these is their failure to withstand the magnitude and duration of induced breaking voltage. While the reasons for these deficiencies are not known with certainty, the deficiencies of prior art explosive breakers under high loading may be due to their inability to rapidly quench the spark or ionization between severed electrode parts.
It is therefore one object of this invention to provide an improved circuit breaking apparatus and method. Another object is the provision of an apparatus for rapidly breaking high load circuits and isolating faulty elements while withstanding the magnitude and duration of induced breaking voltage. Yet another objective is the provision of an explosive breaker which takes the most advantage of the speed and low energy signal demands of explosive breakers while overcoming the inherent deficiencies of prior art systems of that type.
Therefore, in accordance with one embodiment there is provided a high speed, high impedance explosive circuit interrupter capable of operating on low energy signals, at high speed while minimizing system exposure to the circuit faults and fault current magnitude and duration.